Legends Unite
by Croftle
Summary: When Lara, Kaz and Sam go on a lookout for their old friend, they unite with a familiar duo to embark on a death-defying adventure.
1. The Start of Something Life-Changing

Chapter 1

You open your eyes... you are in the shanty town being chased down by the Solarii. You realise that Sam has been taken to the 'Throne Room' by Father Matthias. You panic and anxiety starts to take over your body. Suddenly, everything goes black. When you open your eyes, you find yourself sitting up in panic, in your room of your university dorm. Sam, being your roommate, notices you woke up suddenly and asks, "It's another nightmare, isn't it?" You make a long, tired sigh and say, "I... don't want to talk about it." Trying to avoid a conversation about this horrible subject. "Lara, you should get some sleep... it's only three in the morning, and we have a test tomorrow." She smiles to you reassuringly, and you nod to agree to her suggestion. Letting the silence in the room give you a peaceful slumber.

You feel your shoulder moving back and forth furiously as Sam tries to wake you up, "Lara! It's 9:00, t your test starts half an hour from now!" shouted Sam. You roll out of bed as quickly as you can and you end up wearing your clothes over your Pyjamas and leave your room, pulling up your hair as you run towards the door with your backpack on one of your shoulders.

"Lara, you're late for the test, it's not like you." Said the professor, shaking his head with disapproval. "I'm so sorry, my alarm didn't work and I literally woke up just now. I'm... sorry..." you said sheepishly, "Ok ok... let's just hope you're awake enough to concentrate on the test." Said the professor.

You were very well prepared for the test, and besides, it was an archaeology test, so you probably knew she answers to this test since your childhood. You complete the test half an hour before your time limit because you knew all the answers by heart. Having nothing to do, you rest your head on your arms.

Suddenly, your eye lids feel heavier and heavier, until it all goes black.

Once you open your eyes, you find yourself in the 'Throne Room', chasing after Father Matthias while he's pulling Sam behind him. You try to shoot him with your bow, but you miss. You suddenly feel a huge thump on your head and everything goes black... again.

When you wake up from your unconsciousness, you find yourself back in your class, breathing heavily, with no one in your class but your teacher, "Ah! You finally woke up. I tried to wake you up but... well... you just didn't!" "Oh God... I'm so sorry. The flashbacks..." The professor knew your father well, and about the Yamatai 'incident', so you trusted him. "Oh... I thought they stopped... I want to help you but, I just simply don't know how!"

You return to your room, and you find Sam watching TV, answering the questions of the game show she was watching. Sam heard you close the door, and she saw fear in your eyes. "Hey, Lara, I need to tell you something..." Sam told you, feeling slightly nervous. Her hand went up to the back of her neck and started to rub it, adding to her nervous look. "What is it? Sam... What happened?" You start to feel worried for what she's going to tell you. That she'll tell you something about that God forsaken place. "Lara, I... I've been having Nightmares... about Yamatai... that you were running towards me, trying to catch up... That guy... He was pulling me..." Her voice starts shaking, and stops as the trembling couldn't be controlled, trying to not make the crying evident, but you knew that she was. "Sam, you don't have to continue... I... I had the nightmares aswell... but this time, _I_ was chasing _you_. And then... It just all goes black." You sit next to her on the couch, and smiled at her reassuringly, and Sam eagerly returned it.


	2. A New Encounter

Chapter 2

You talked about what happened for quite a long time now, and then you feel your stomach grumbling. "Fancy any breakfast?" you asked, trying to change the subject, "yeah sure, my stomach is eating itself." Sam said, letting a small chuckle, you join her, lightening the mood.

You decide to go to a café on the other side of the road of your dorm. It was quiet, with not a lot of people inside. You eat your breakfast eagerly and wait for Sam, "You're done already? Wow... I guess you really _were_ hungry!"

Sam finally completes her bacon and eggs, and you leave for the dorm. "Lara, im gonna go to our room and finish up my project for tomorrow. "As you arrive to your room's front door, you find a young woman waiting. She was wearing a casual outfit: dark blue jeans and a plain orange t-shirt. The woman had long, blonde hair with choppy layers.

It was Kaz, Alex s sister.

"Kaz?!"

"Lara!"

You hug her tightly. "It's been... so long." Kaz said. "I missed you, so much... I'm so sorry about Al-""No, don't worry, he was, a good man," cutting you off, her voice starts trembling. Trying to change the subject, you say, "I'll open the door, you want some tea or coffee?" You get the key and open the door, and you find Sam on the armchair with her laptop on her knees. "Oh hey Lara, who's this?" Asks Sam, while turning over. "Sam, meet Kaz, Alex s sister." Kaz waves to Sam, who returns the wave, then notices what you just said. "Wait, you're Kaz? Hi! It's a pleasure." You go to the kitchen preparing mugs, "Tea or coffee anyone?" They both say tea, which is good because you were going to have tea aswell, which makes it less of a hassle.

The kettle starts boiling and you pour the water in the three mugs. As you give the mugs to Sam and Kaz, you notice the documentary Sam is watching, "Why are you watching a motherhood docu-... you're not pregnant, are you?" You ask Sam, feeling confused. "What?! No...No..." Sam starts laughing, "it's about my new project, Long story short... we're gonna film a documentary about family and stuff like that... and I guess this is part one." You sigh with relief, and all three of you start laughing hysterically. You turn on TV to see what's on, nothing interesting. So you decide to play with your PlayStation, playing your favourite game, Assassins Creed. "Oh cool! I love that game!" Sam said enthusiastically.

After half an hour of playing, you ask kaz, "So, Kaz, why did you come here?" She puts her mug on the coffee table and gives a long, sad sigh, and says,

"Well, I..." she sniffs, as her voice becomes shaky, "Ever since you came back from Yamatai, and I knew that Alex was... dead... my family broken down, and, they divorced. Then... I had nowhere to go. But then when I knew that you were here, I had to come and tell you. He loved you Lara. He loved you a lot. When he wasn't with you, he used to tell me, 'it's like part of my heart has gone missing'. He would say that to me every time." She started sobbing, you get her a packet of tissues from the counter and sit next to her, comforting her.

You don't know how long you had been there, with Kaz crying on your shoulder. You put a hand around her, pulling her closer to you, trying to make her feel better. You can hear her crying is starting to descend into low whimpers. As you give her a tissue, you pull away from her and lower your head to try and make eye contact. She looks at you. "Don't worry, everything is going to be okay." You keep repeat the last phrase. She hugs you, burying her head in your neck. "Thank you... I knew Alex would love someone who cares for him."

As she mentions her brother's name, she goes back to square one, crying heavily. You know it's going to be long for her to calm down, but you don't mind being here for a long time.


	3. The Reminder

Chapter 3

"Ugh... Lara...?!" Said Sam anxiously, looking at the screen of her laptop. Her eyes widened. "You gotta see this... come here." Despite your current position, you don't wish to move, now Kaz is calming down but she's still crying slightly. You clear your throat loudly to try to get Sam's attention. You succeed doing so. "Oh yeah... right." She sits on the edge of the couch, showing you the screen.

It is a news article entitled, 'The legendary Solarii try to resurrect Father Matthias.' Your eyes widen even more with every word you read. You start reading out loud. "The Solarii, try to reawaken their founder, Father Matthias with a fire ritual similar to what happened to the group of survivors of the ship named 'The Endurance'. But this time, they don't use a woman named Sam Nishimura, but a man named..." You are shocked by what you read and you gasp, causing kaz to listen more closely, despite all the whimpering.

"Al... Alex...Weiss."

You all stop in silence, trying to register what you just read. You start to feel a drop of sweat rolling down from your forehead. Kaz says, "So... does this mean..." "I guess... It does." You say. And then Sam says, "Why are you guys sad?! He's still alive!"

You stand up and start walking towards your bedroom, trying to have some time alone to register what you just read. You start to feel dizzy, your legs become shaky and you fall to the ground, unconscious.

You are now in the Endurance, trying to find Alex. As you start searching for him, you come across your room. Everything was destroyed. You start rummaging through the debris and you come across your journal. Thankfully it was still semi-intact. "HELP! Is anyone there?!" It was Alex, she knew that voice anywhere. "ALEX! Where are you?!" "Uh, I'm in a sort of control room" You start moving faster and faster, towards his voice, from a fast walk to a steady run.

You finally find yourself in the room Alex was talking about. But where he actually was... was blocked with a confusion of electrocuted wires. You couldn't get to him. "Use that cargo pulley thing to bust your way in." You do that and it works, enabling you to enter the room he was in.

He was pinned down with heavy scrap metal and debris. You try and remove as much as you can, but it's not enough. "Lara... its no use" "Wha- what are you saying?!" He smiles to you reassuringly. And gives you the tools you needed. "No... No no no... We can find something to get you out of here." You start mumbling as you think how you could remove the metal, as Alex cuts you off, "Lara. I'm sorry."

You start panicking and you could feel tears rolling down furiously on your cheeks. You start to hear gunshots, making you panic even more. "Lara just go..." You're not able to talk as you were crying so much. He tried to stop you from helping him. But it was no use.

When Alex noticed that there were too many gunshots being heard, he pushed you out of the room and threw something heavy to pin the door closed. As you try to open the door, there is a huge explosion in the room Alex was in.

"ALEX!" You shout his name, no reply. Alex... was dead.


	4. The Recovery

Chapter 4

"Um... Lara? It's me, Sam." You breath heavily, not able to talk. You sit up, but you start to feel light headed and lay down immediately. Sam sits next to you while you are in your bed. All your muscles are soar, forcing you to go in your foetal position, forming a ball. "Oh god, Lara. You're making me worry." Now she's off the bed and on her knees next to it, so she's eye-level to you. You groan. "You know, making weird noises doesn't help." You open your eyes, but the light makes you feel nauseous so you close them immediately. "Kaz, she woke up." She hurried to the room but the loud stomping made you feel even worse, making you curl up even more. She notices and starts moving slowly.

She has a glass of water in her hand for you, and puts it on your bedside table.

"Sweetie, we're gonna go. Get some sleep. I'll tell the professor that you aren't feeling too well. Don't worry, he'll understand." You make a small nod but after two nods your neck went sore and you stopped, but they still understood you and left.

Because of your condition, you aren't able to sleep. All you could do was think about that article you read before... This... happened. Was it true? Or just a scam? Sam and Kaz seemed to believe it. But if Alex is alive, we need go rescue him. No one is willing to go back to Yamatai,

But I am.

While you were thinking about this, you couldn't help but start feeling the scars on your hands which were made when you were trying g to remove the debris off Alex s leg. Some of them were smaller than the others, they can be barely felt, but some were more severe than the others, being cut very deep and left a big mark on your hands, as you had more than one of these. Your forefinger traces your severe scars, causing you to flinch, and you stop immediately.

You are still thinking about Alex. But now you're feeling slightly better, causing your body to form an oval, Instead of a ball. You start to loosen up and your dizziness is decreasing slowly.

"...Sam...?" you call her as loud as you can, but you only make a slight groan instead of her name. But the door was slightly open so she heard you and came in straight away. She's in your room and sitting down on the bed. She starts rubbing your shoulders, trying to make you feel better. You were about to protest, but you can't lie, it does feel good. This makes you loosen even more, making you semi – straight. Because you were in the shape of a ball before, you are now on the edge of the bed, leaving plenty of space on one side.

Sam took this opportunity and laid down behind you. "Do you mind if...?" Sam said, as she gestured that she wanted to pull you closer to her, to make you feel safe. You nod. She wraps her arm around you and pulls you towards her. You are facing her, and you can feel that she's trying to make eye contact with you. You open your eyes very slightly, so that not much light can come in. Even though there was not any light apart from the window behind you.

"Lara... do you mind if I tell you something?" you nod. "Ok good. Umm..." She starts sounding a bit nervous.

"Lara... We... I've been reading the article very carefully, and it said that the Solarii were resurrecting Father Matthias using Alex s body... I don't know if he's alive... but when they did it to me..." she now couldn't control her voice from shivering, but continued anyway... "I... was still... alive."

"So that means..." you say. Now Sam is slightly sobbing because she started thinking of her trauma, and now _you_ comfort _her_. Now you felt guilty that... This... was all your fault. That Sam s trauma was all your fault. That Roth, Grim, Dr. Whitman and Alex, died because of you. You join Sam s crying but you are still comforting her.


	5. Wake Up Call

Chapter 5

You have been crying together for a long time now, but you aren't willing to remove your hand from her hip, and her hand from your hip, making you feel safer. Sam buries her head in your neck, under your chin. Kaz enters the room very slowly, with the box of tissue you offered her before.

"Oh God, Kaz, I'm so sorry, we're a mess." You sit up to look at her. You feel slightly soar, but it was manageable. Sam didn't look at Kaz but she wipes her eyes from her tears, ruining her makeup in the process.

"No, guys stay there. Don't worry about me." Kaz smiles reassuringly as she sits down next to you and Sam. "We should find time to talk about this, and this time we should be careful that we won't feel bad in any way." Both you and Sam nod.

Sam smiles at you, and you return it eagerly. The peaceful feeling you start to feel, makes you relax. And with Sam close to you, comforting you and vice versa, enhances that feeling. You can here Sam snoring quietly and peacefully. She's fast asleep. You roll out of bed very carefully, trying not to move her, and replace your body with a pillow, so she won't notice. Even though you aren't that squishy.

You go outside of the room to the living room, where Kaz is sitting on the armchair, reading the article on Sam s laptop. "Oh hey Lara. Do you... do you think this is true?" "I'm not sure, but I do t think it is. Then again, how would they know his name? They never mentioned him in the documentaries..." You sit down on the couch to try and think.

'How do they know his name? How did they know this is happening?' You thought to yourself.

"Wait, how did they know this was happening? When you were in Yamatai... No one mentioned it until after you came back, because of those interviews. Those storms must have stopped... but we need to see if Alex is alive or not. But how?" she looks concerned and stands up from the armchair, to sit next to you.

"There's only one way to find out..." You tell her, as you cross your arms in front of you, and giving a long exasperated sigh, because you knew what you just prepared yourself to do.

"Wait, you're... you're not saying that we are gonn-"Her eyes widen.

"I guess I am." You say, as Sam enters the room looking loopy, as she just woke up.

She looks at both of you, raising an eyebrow. "What's wrong? Lara, you're making that 'we're gonna do something crazy' face." She says.

"We are going to do something crazy..." you say sheepishly.

"What..? It's not like we're going to Yamatai or something" she giggles as she turns away to grab a glass of water from the kitchen, not able to see your face.

You stay silent for a couple of seconds. Sam starts drinking the water.

"...We...are..."


	6. An Easy Agreement

Chapter 6

Sam spits out the water she was drinking because of the shock, making a mess in front of her.

"You... you're not serious, are you?!" She asks, sitting on the stool on front of the kitchen counter.

You stay silent, not making any eye contact.

"I guess you are... serious." She puts the glass of water on the counter, stands up from the stool, and comes next to you. "But, if we are going to Yamatai, how are we gonna get there?" she says as she tries to make an eye contact with you, but you reject.

"Well, I guess if there were journalists on the island, there aren't any dangerous things, so we can probably get a plane... Winston has one." You say.

"Wait, wasn't Winston your parents' Butler? And he has a plane?!" Sam asks. "Yes, and has a pilots licence as well." You say, as Sam s eyes widen with surprise.

"Ok, so, transportation, check" Sam says as she's checking her mental list. "How were gonna get there is done, but when are we going?" "According to the article," Kaz says while she's reading the article, "it says that the resurrection is gonna be soon, so we probably have to be sooner than that."

"Define soon..." Sam asks her phone sarcastically. You ignore her, there is no point in arguing now.

"Well... tomorrow?" You say, not expecting them to say yes.

They all widen their eyes, in surprise, but seconds later, they nod.

'That was easier than I thought.' You think to yourself.

"It's for the best, even though it's a bit short notice."

"Ok...when, check... but now I'm guessing that we need some sort of weapon..." "Yes, about that, would you guys mind if you come with me to my parents' house?" "Umm... da! That house is amazing!" Sam says. You look at Kaz and she nods.

You all change, and go outside to the car. It was once Roth s car, it brings back many memories.

It was a pretty long trip towards the mansion, and everyone was asleep, but you of course. Sam notices that you stopped and opens her eyes, and stretches. She wakes up Kaz, she groans as she lifts her head up.

"Come on, we have to go and get some things." You say as you open the car door.

You end up opening the door for the others, as they are still loopy from their long sleep.

As Kaz jumps out of the car and turns back to get our bags, she says, "You know, I still don't get why Sam is so excited to go to your hou-... wow..."

"It's amazing, right?!" Sam says, as she takes her bag from Kaz s hands.

You giggle at her reaction, and you start walking towards Croft Manor.


	7. Home Sweet Home

Chapter 7

As you enter the mansion, you can hear gasps of surprise coming from Kaz and Sam. Even though Sam came here already, she is still amazed by the size of the rooms.

"It's like it's bigger on the inside... did we just enter another version of the Tardis?" Sam says, as she does every time. "I think so... woah..." Kaz says.

You start you start walking towards the library, and both of them follow you. You go down to the basement, and face a bookshelf. You grin as you push three books: one about Sherlock Holmes, another about the Secrets of the Underworld, and one named 'Discoveries in the books', respectively.

Suddenly, a clicking sound was triggered, and the bookshelf moved forward slightly. Then, you pull it and it opens, similar to the movement of a door, to reveal a room filled with guns, knives, climbing axes, military boots, arrows, ammo pouches, and finally, your bow. A recurve bow, with a curve pattern engraved in the front of it. Its ropes and limbs reinforced, perfect for hard-core combat.

You get your bag and start filling it up with these survival tools. The others follow your lead, even though they are still shocked. "Sam, you should get that machine gun over there. And kaz, you should get the shotgun." They nod and do as they were told.

You, of course, take your bow and put it in your bag. You put a pair of boots, bandages, and your climbing axe in another section of the bag.

A few minutes have passed and you, Kaz and Sam have filled your bags. The three of you have different combat styles. You have stealth, Sam has assault, and Kaz has mercenary. As you give them ammo pouches, you start to think about Alex and how he saved your life in Yamatai.

Before that time, he was always quite timid and shy, and he never did these kinds of things. You never thought that he would be willing to risk his life to save someone he cares about, or to lose his life to save another. But he did. And he did it to save you. He died to save you. He cared about you, loved you, and you loved him too, but you didn't tell him, and now you regret it.

"Uh... Lara?" Sam said, interrupting your thoughts. "Oh sorry, but I was thinking..." You said. "If he's mentioned in that article, that means he isn't dead. So when he saved me, in the ship, who saved him before the explosion?" you say as you start walking towards the car. "Didn't you say the explosion happened exactly after you closed the door? So, who it was, must have been quick." Said Sam, who was thinking about this as well. "Or not even human at all." You look at Kaz, confused. She rarely believes in these kinds of things, but when she does, she truly means it.

"So, I guess, we're off!" Sam says, with a slightly nervous tone. "Don't worry Sam, we're gonna be fine, and Kaz, Alex will be all right.


	8. Not So Warm Welcome

Chapter 8

You enter the car, together with Kaz and Sam. "Where are we going now?" Asked Sam, as she leaned over from the back seat to fit her head in between the two front seats. "We're going to what used to be my dad's field, now there's runway. I contacted Winston and he's there waiting for us." You say, as you start the car and begin driving. "So, um, hey Lara?" says Sam as she looks at you with a concerned look. "Mhm?" you say, but you don't look at her as you are driving. "When we go to Yamatai, how are re we gonna find Alex... I mean... We have the whole island to search and, we're only three. I just... I don't know how we're gonna do this."

"Sam, I don't know either. I..." You struggle to say these last five words, "haven't thought that far ahead." A long awkward pause is interrupted by the sound of your screeching brakes. "We're here." You say, as the others look around. "Wait, something isn't right."

Usually, when you used to go travelling with your dad, Winston would wait for us near the entrance, but he isn't there. "Winston?" You start looking for him together with the other two.

First you look inside of the small building where the fuel and spare parts are. You open doors and he's nowhere to be found.

Then, after you go out of the building you search around the perimeter of the area, again nowhere to be found.

"Come on, Sully, we don't have much time!"

You turn around and see a young man running towards the plane, with brown hair, a white shirt and generic jeans. He has a pistol holstered, so you pull out your pistol out of the bag you were carrying. He didn't notice you.

You regroup with Sam and Kaz, and they noticed him too. Sam says, "Three questions, one, who the hell is he? Two, who the hell is Sully? And three, Why are they here?" "I don't know"

You look back at him and now you see and older man following him. They're both running at the plane.

"Oh, God... We have to get to them quick or else they'll take the plane, but they can't notice us." You say.

"Okay, lead the way." Kaz says as she getting her shotgun from the bag, and Sam gets her assault rifle.

You start to run silently towards them, they don't seem to notice. They enter the plane, but they don't start, because of this, you manage to reach the plane. The door is still open, so you enter. You think they didn't notice, but they did.

The younger man is pointing his pistol towards you, and you do the same. "I don't want to do this young lady!" "Neither do I, but this is my plane not yours." His eyes widen, and lowers the gun. "Wait, you're a part of the Croft family?!" You make a confused look, but you don't lower you gun. "How do you know?"

"You're Lara, aren't you? The Yamatai survivor?" You nod. The older man jumps in and says, "Well I'll be go to hell!" "What?" Sam says. "And who is she?" "She's my friend. Now that you know who I am, who are you two?"

"I'm Nathan Drake, and this is Vi-Victor Sullivan" He reaches out his hand, but you reject the offer, "why do you want to use this plane?" Nathan looks worried, as if he's gonna make a big mistake. "Look, Lara, we... how am i gonna say this... we're going to this plane because there are people we know who we thought were dead and aren't really dead. Wow that was a mouthful." You're shocked, you know he's talking about Yamatai. Gasps can be heard from behind you. Victor looks at Kaz, "What?"

"We... we need this plane for the same reason. To save a friend. In Yamatai." you say, feeling like you've so too much. "Great! It looks like neither of us is letting go of this plane, so... We can go together!"

"What! No... no no, we can't do that," you turn to look at Kaz and Sam, and whisper, "how do we know we can trust them." "We're right here you know!"

You're outnumbered for this argument and it looks like you don't have a chance at winning it, so you just give in.

You whisper to Sam, "If they backstab us, it won't be my fault... like... last time." She sighs. "Oh sweetie, it's wasn't your fault, even if it was, I forg-" "Look, I know you're trying to support your friend and all, but we're rinnin' outta time here." Victor says in his low, harsh voice.

You smile at Sam, hug her, and say, "Thank you."


	9. Inconveniant Flight

Chapter 9

Victor stands up from the seat and starts walking towards the front of the plane. You catch up to him and stop him. "Where are you going?" You say to him. He raises his hands as an 'innocent' gesture and says, "I am gonna pilot the plane."

As you were about to protest, you can feel someone touching your shoulder, you turn to look. It was Sam. And she looked worried. "What's wrong?"

"Where's Winston!?"

You go to Nathan, and say, "How you seen an old man, formally dressed, and really polite?" He looks confused. "Umm... no. At least I don't think s-...what's that sound?" You can hear the rumbling engines of some type of heavy vehicle, like a truck, getting louder and louder.

Everyone freezes with fright, except you. You need to be calm during these situations. If you panic, you become vulnerable.

"We need to get out of here. This is a just a flying bomb if it gets shot." You say as you try to open the door. "What the... it's locked!" You hear the plane's engine starting and it starts accelerating. You go to the front of the plane, no one's there. Nathan rushes to the front of the plane, next to you, and tries to move the steering wheel, nothing happens. "Move outta the goddamn way Nate!" Victor says, pushing Nathan to the side. He sits down on the pilot seat and tries to move it, nothing happens.

"Um, Lara!" Kaz says, while looking out of the window, you come next to her and look out of the window, you can see a whole convoy, filled with soldiers and mercenaries.

Now the plane is in the air, and high up.

"Wait, the plane is going somewhere..." says Sam. She starts to search your bag, "um... can I borrow your journal-thing?" As you walk towards Sam, the plane tilts to the right suddenly and all of you hit the side hard.

Your shoulder is really aching now, and the pain is boosted by all the scars.

The plane goes back to its horizontal position. You land, hitting your head but not hard enough to get you unconscious, at least.

When you open your eyes, you see the interior of the plane, everything clustered, all the things that were in the bags spilled on the floor. Conveniently, you find your journal in front of you.

This book, is your point of reference to all the things you need to know about myths, legends and history.

"Ugh Sam? I got the journal..." you say, very weekly. Sam groans, "Ugh thanks."


	10. Secretive Journal

Chapter 10

Sam gets up slowly, holding onto the seats for support. She flips through the pages of your journal, "Here it is, it says that, "if you need to go to an unknown place, the object that you control will go beyond your control and lead the way." Sam says as she closes the journal.

"So, what you're saying is... the plane is leading us to somewhere? But wait, aren't we going to Yamatai?" Says Victor, looking extremely confused.

"She's right!" Says Nathan. He starts rummaging through his backpack, gets out a small dark blue book, and starts flipping the pages. "Ah. Here it is. It's the exact same words. But it's connected to..." he stops, looking very surprised. "St Francis Folly?! Isn't that in Greece?"

You freeze is shock. "Lara? What's wrong?" Sam says, in a very worried manner.

"That place was where... my father died..."

Kaz comes next to you, and puts her hand around your shoulder, to comfort you.

"Oh my god..." you say. "What?" "I think I know what we're looking for. Nathan, umm... can I borrow that book of yours." He nods and passes it to you.

You take the journal and place on a small table.

You look at the book's cover; it wasn't in its best condition. "By any chance, where did you get this?" you ask him. "Um, it got it from one of your dad's digs, he gave it to me."

You go to the first page, you can see the initials, 'R.J.C'. Those were your grandfather's initials.

You were about to close the book but you feel something under the paper securing the cover. Like a thick piece of parchment.

You pull at the corners of the paper. "Hey! What do you think you're doing!" he says as he tries to pull the book out of your grasp.

You use this to your advantage. As he pulled, you only hold on to the corner of the paper which was loose. You pull with him, and all that's left in your hand is the piece of paper.

You notice a small, folded up piece of cloth, it looked like it was much older than that journal it was in.

You pick it up and unfold it. "The Scion!" Says Nathan.

"The what?!" Sullivan says.

"It's called the Scion. This thing... this mechanism, is used to decipher words... as far as I know. But... what is it doing here? I mean, I don't suppose a piece of old cloth, which was hidden, and I don't think it was meant to be found, isn't of some type of importance."

You say, "Look, all I know is that my father, and especially my grandfather, kept a lot of secrets. But for a good cause. This must mean that the Scion is… dangerous. And I don't wish to put my friends and you in any type of danger… not like… Yamatai."

You look out of the window to see... what do you see? Ah yes, the beauty of nature being destroyed ever so slowly by humans. An abandoned oil rig. But… you can see people on it. No, corpses on it. All laying down in the most uncomfortable manner. You look away, "guys? Come see this."

They all take their own small, personal window, and you take yours too. You look out…

…they're gone.

"What the-… where did they go? I saw- "you say, everybody starts looking at you with a look, a look that makes you very uncomfortable, but you aren't able to decipher it. You look back, there's only an oil rig, no people, no corpses. Are you starting to hallucinate? Or was it just bad eye-sight? No, it can't be, it was too vivid to be a misunderstanding. It has to be true.

"NO ONE LEAVES" you hear, as more shouting can be heard as you were descending quite steeply. You can see flares being shot from the small gaps between the metal bars. You can hear shots being fired, as the bullets either ricochet or go through the vintage plane.

"We have to land!" Kaz says, you can see the extreme worry in her eyes. You can feel the plane starting to lose engine strength, as its descending in a much steeper manner. You go to the front of the plane and try to pull the plane back, you can feel a slight change of direction, but it's not enough.

The plane is almost touching the bottomless, murky ocean, and now that you're very close to the 'abandoned' oil rig, you can hear people shouting, "KILL 'EM" or "LET THEM DIE".

There's light passing through the bullet holes in the plane, and as time goes by, more holes accumulate, and the plane loses more power. Now the plane is almost skimming the surface of the water, and now everyone is panicking. Even you. You don't know what to do.

You go to the cock pit, and try to pull the plane back, but instead the control panel pulls off.

CRASH…


	11. A Life For A Life

Chapter 11

Most of the plane is still intact, but the bullets holes are making the plane work like an inverted colander. As the water rises, the level of your panic rises as well. The water is up to your knees, and as you wade through the water, your foot gets stuck under a piece of rubble. You try to kick it off, but it won't budge.

Sam notices your struggling, and waddles towards you. When she reaches you, the water is already up to your mid-thigh, Sam tries to pull the debris off your leg, you try to support her struggle by pulling with her, but you don't manage.

"Kaz! Come and help us! She's stuck!" Kaz rushes over to help you, and starts tugging on the heavy metal parts, you and Sam join her. You manage to pull off some of the rubble off, letting you to move your leg to make some space to get out. Youre free, but the water has already reached up to your chest, and now you're swimming.

"Nate? Damn it where is he?!" You can see Victor panicking, trying to find his friend. You search for him too, but the water is rising quickly. In your panic, your breathing is becoming more abrupt and short. your chance of survival is at its smallest, but that doesn't mean that the others will die because of you.

You hear heavy breathing behind you, and a latch open, with a panic-stricken laugh, it's Nathan and he managed to open one of the emergency exits. "guys, over here!" he takes a deep breath and goes underwater. You all follow his lead, all gulping a mouthful of air and start swimming. You go through the hatch, the metal bars can be seen right in front of you, so you swim towards them, and the whole group swim in your path. You try to stay underwater as much as possible so the others won't see you.

As you start to swim upwards, pulling at the metal bars so you can ascend quicker. You look behind you, everyone is following you, except one, Sam.

You can't let her die, she almost died for you last year in Yamatai, and you promised her that you are her first priority, and you need to keep that promise. You still have a bit of air left, so you turn around and gesture to the others to keep swimming upwards and to not follow you. They obey you, and you swim as quickly as possible, downwards. You can see her, unconscious, you hope, with a hand stretched out. You reach for her hand and grab it, it was cold, at least colder that your hand, as you pull her with you, the swimming is obviously much more strenuous, and you start to feel light-headed.

You almost reach the surface, and none of your group is there. Your body is too weak to continue swimming, you can't make it, but Sam is your number one priority. You push her with your remaining force, and she reached the surface, floating facing upwards. You're satisfied with what you've done, and your body is too worn too move, so you just give in, and close your eyes, waiting for your endless slumber. Is this the end?


	12. Something in Common

Chapter 12

All you can hear is the bubbling of the water, becoming fainter, and your body feeling weaker and weaker, almost paralyzed. No more air in your lungs, just waiting for the end. You can't move, it's no use in trying. Until…

You feel a hand tugging at the hem of your shirt, pulling you upwards. Can this be? Is this not the end? You reach the surface, but you can't breathe, no inhaling, nor exhaling. You're just a semi-live corpse being pulled carefully across the heavy water.

You hit something, which sounds like metal, the oil rig? "Oh, God… Lara. No, no, this can't be." Sam. She's here and alive, but how do you know? Aren't you supposed to be dead? You're not even breathing.

You start feeling heavy pushes towards your chest, probably someone trying to use resuscitation. You can hear Sam crying heavily, and Kaz too, and Victor cursing at himself. "come on, COME ON!" you hear Nathan's voice cracking, almost as if he's crying.

Another push, and it works. You're gasping desperately for air, and end up coughing up water. You're still weak, but you have enough strength to talk. "Sam… You're… Here." You say very weakly. Sam starts crying with happiness, "yes, Yes I am Lara. And I'm here because of you." You smile faintly.

You're still lying on the floor, you want to see your friends, but as you open your eyes, the light is too much for you so you close them immediately. You can feel extreme pain in your abdomen, the same location where you had to cauterize the womb with an arrow in that god forsaken place. you groan at the stinging, and you put your hand over it.

"sweetie, what's wrong? Nate she's in pain! What do I do?! Oh God, she bleeding really bad from there! Nate!" You can hear heavy step running towards you, and now there is a pair of hands pushing against the puncture. You scream in pain, and now the adrenaline kicks in, giving you the strength to open your eyes, and sit up.

You can see Sam, with red eyes, and trails of tears falling down, because of both happiness and panic. She's on her knees next to you, you hold her hand and squeeze it as the pain gets worse. Kaz is walking back and forth in the back ground, trying to calm down. You look to the left, you can see Nathan, or Nate, pressing against your wound. Next to him, is Sully holding a first aid kit, he opens it, and turns it upside down so the contents come out quicker. "there no bandages in this damn thing!"

"in my bag, there are bandages in my bag…" Sam says. "How can we get the bags! There in the damn plane!" Says Victor. Sam stands up, and starts walking towards Kaz, goes behind a piece of metal, and gets her bag, and the other three.

"How did you…?" Says Kaz, and takes her bag and opens it, and takes out her pump-action shotgun disbelievingly. "you think I don't have a brain to think of a backup plan? I'm not only good at being fabulous you know." Sam jokes lightening the mood. "Right before we crashed, I put all our bags on one of the pilot seats. Because this is a pretty old plane, I knew that it still had an ejector seat. So when we crashed and hit the water, I just pulled the lever." She says, as she puffs out her chest, feeling proud that her plan worked.

After a few seconds in that pose, she rushes towards you, pulls out her bandages, and starts to wrap them around your abdomen.

Your slightly light-headed, because of all that blood loss, but now that you have the appropriate aid, you try to stand up. Your throat still feels harsh, but at least your breathing has improved. As you stand up, Nathan puts your arm around him, to help you walk. You look at him, his smiling, in spite of the circumstances, he's still optimistic. "Hey, Nathan?" you say to him, sheepishly. He looks at you with his light blue eyes, "Yeah?" You smile at him, "Thank you…"

You look at each other, for a few seconds, then you look down, at his necklace, a ring. You are now facing each other, and his still holding you for support, but now his hand is holding one of yours. You pick up his ring, and he picks up your jade relic.

You both say simultaneously, "My first find" You start giggling at the coincidence, and look towards him. You can see his crooked smile as he looks at you, and his other hand brushes some hair from in front of your eyes. You both grin at each other for several seconds.


	13. Old Friend

Chapter 13

"ok, you two should do this later, we still got this problem to deal with. There are still tons of people who want to kill us upstairs." Says Victor as he passes out our weapons, and he gives you your bow with a quiver full of arrows.

You start walking between metal bars, and as you reach a stair case you pull out an arrow and arm your bow, and the others follow your lead as they arm their weapons. The stairs that you climb up all have different depictions painted in white paint, almost identical to the ones in Yamatai.

Nathan is still supporting you, and you need it. you're still too weak to fend off on your own. You start hearing footsteps above you, they can be heard more since the floor is made of metal. You crouch down to take cover.

Gunshots? Do we have more allies? You start climbing up the stairs more eagerly now, you're curious to see who it is. As you reach the top if the flight of stairs, you stop. Nathan stops you from continuing. "What are you doing?! We need to help whoever is against the Solarii." You say as you try to pull off his supporting hand. Nathan pulls you back and he goes first. As he looks around the corner, he says "Lara, you have to see this." Everyone runs next to Nathan. A number of guards are walking in formation, almost military. They are all wearing clothes similar to the guards' clothes in Yamatai, all ripped, filled with blood stains and bandages. They all looked like they were in a serious gun fight.

The one in the front was wearing metal armour, and holding a sizeable chest. They kept on marching along the corridor, and after a few steps, they turned around a corner. "We have to find out what's in that box. It may be a vital clue to know where Al-, our friend is." You manage to escape from Nathan's grasp, and you step away from him. You run to that corner and take a peak around it.

They're stationary, and the armoured soldier no longer has the box, but it was placed on a short pillar. The pillar was painted with intricate designs and seemed quite important to them. All the men behind the armoured soldier kneeled down on one knee and started praying,

"For the Scion, our lives are given.

For it shows us the way to our new saviour.

Our Messiah.

Our leader.

The Scion, given from the Greek Gods to lead us,

To the tools we use to create our saviour from a man.

From man to god."

They kept on repeating this prayer.

"Oh God, no, they are going to use Alex's body to summon Father Matthias. We have to take the Scion or else they'll kill him. This is all my fault, all of it. If it wasn't for me, all of this wouldn't happen. All these deaths…"

Nathan puts a hand to cover your mouth for you to stop talking. You can feel tears collect on your eyelid. He pulls you closer to him and wraps his hand around you. And that is when you break. You start sobbing and crying uncontrollably and tears start streaming down your cheeks, all getting absorbed by Nathan's shirt. Sam comes next to you, and starts comforting you "NONE of this was your fault. Ok? This was all meant to happen." You nod and bury your head in Nathans neck.

"NO! PLEASE LET ME GO!" You hear where all the soldiers were. Alex.

You all look at each other disbelievingly. You sprint towards the soldiers, and pull and arrow back with your bow. "STOP!" they all stand up and look at you with their guns pointed towards you. The armoured soldier is still facing the other way, and starts chuckling evilly. He turns around.

He was holding… no… it can't be… he was holding Alex in a choke hold with a combat knife pointed towards his neck. "LET HIM GO! PLEASE!" he laughs. "You think I can obey you? After all we've been through together. You didn't even trust me, Lara." You're shocked, but you still keep your bow armed. "how do you know my-"he removes his helmet. Dr Whitman.

You lower your bow, and start looking around slightly to see if there are any exits. You look up and see more soldiers with bows pointed at you. You're outnumbered. You shouldn't have done this, this was a grave mistake. You throw your hands up in surrender and you can see all the soldiers walking towards you and the ones above lower their bows. Good.

You look at your friends still around and start nudging your head towards the soldiers for them to attack. They understand you and arm their weapons and get ready to attack. You wave at the slowly for them to wait. They do so.

The soldiers are getting closer, only a few feet away from you. Your hands are still up in surrender, but your legs are in a stance to fight. As the soldier in front of you reaches out to grab you, you shout, "NOW!" and your allies charge out and attack with all their might.

Now you lower your hands and kick the man in front of you. He isn't well trained as he tumbles clumsily to the ground with a large thump. This makes you more confident and you move on to the next soldier.

This time, he was ready for your kick and grabs your leg. This makes you lose balance and fall to the ground heavily. You groan as the pain in your side gets worse, where you were bleeding before. You put your hand over it, trying to hold in the pain but you're still lying on the ground. You stand up slowly, but as quickly as you can to fight with your allies again.

Gunshots can be heard behind the wall behind you. The trained soldier charges towards you quickly. You dodge him slowly and he crashed to the wall behind you. He's not getting back up from that, so you walk sluggishly towards Nathan, but all the strength from your body is gone after that adrenaline rush and your legs give out on you and you fall weakly to the ground.


	14. Unexpected Phobia

Chapter 14

You try to get up, but its like your body is paralysed. You can't move. You call for Nathan, but all the sound you manage to make is but a mere whimper. Luckily, he still heard you and he's running towards you. "Oh god, Lara." He whispers in worry, as he picks you up and starts running, trying to avoid the few soldiers left.

You feel the pain in your side getting worse, and that pain gives you the strength to press your hand against it. Nathan notices this movement and places his free hand over the wound. You wince at the pain, and you start feeling lightheaded. That strength you had before is depleting, and you wrap your arms around Nathan's neck, and rest your head on his shoulder and you feel weaker and weaker.

"Lara! Don't you dare leave us…" He murmurs. "Guys! Come on! She's bleeding for Christ's sake!" You can hear panic in his voice. Your body is now limp, everywhere is numb, probably from all the blood loss. "Come on Lara. Come on… just a few more seconds." His voice cracks mid-sentence. Is he crying? But, we barely know each other… why does he care so much about me?

After a few steps, he lowers you down to the floor. Still pressing down on your side, he peels off the bandage which didn't do much. He starts whispering words which you could not understand. Your eyes are closed, so you don't know what he's doing, and you don't have the strength to open your eyes.

You scream in pain as he pours some liquid on the wound, but the scream was cut short as a hand is on your mouth to suppress the sound. "Shh there are still a few more people left."

Wait… how can this be? All the pain is gone. How did he-? You open your eyes, and you can see Nathan putting some sort of flask in his bag. "How did you-?" You're gobsmacked. That wound was… unhealable. That was impossible. All he does is smile, tears still stuck to his cheeks. "I have a few tricks up my sleeve."

You decide not to ask about this anymore because it seems that I will know about this "magic" soon enough, and so you stand up, like the wound was never there. Nathan gives you your climbing axe back, "That's all I could retrieve from all that confusion. Thank God you're still here…" He whispers the last sentence, and takes a deep breath. You do the same, and you relax and lower your shoulders for the first time since you were in Roth's car.

"We need to head back; the rest haven't come back. We need to look for them before those crazy fanatic cult believers take them away for some grotesque ritual." You say, as your hatred for Dr. Whitman grows stronger, if it can. But… how did he survive? It's impossible, I saw him get slaughtered by three of the Oni's minions.

Your thoughts were cut short by a loud, high-pitched shriek, and you could recognise the voice.

Sam.

"SAAAM!" You shout, running towards the scream. Nathan follows you, pistol in hand. You try to make as little noise as possible, but the silence is making you uneasy, it's almost too quiet. You are in a long, narrow passageway and there are several doors on each side: two on the left and two on the right. At the end of the hall, there is another door, but this one is different to the others. This one is made of wood unlike the others ones made of metal. In fact, it is the only wooden object in the wretched oil rig. It has small words written on it, so you and Nathan move closer. These words weren't painted on, they were engraved into the wood itself.

You read out loud, "Et quattuor columnas hominum aedificandam. virtute, constantia, caritatem, et bellum. Singulae cum sint cuivis homini, sed verus heros statuet bene utantur." Nathan sighs and says,"Latin? Do you know how to translate this?" "Well, my Latin is a little rusty but, it says something like: Four pillars build humanity: Strength, determination, love and… war. Each of these are acquired to every human, but only true heroes put them to good use."

You turn around to see Nathan looking closely at one of the doors at the side of the passage. "Did you find anything useful?" you say. "I think so… yeah. Did you say something like 'Virtute'? Its painted on the door. And the paint is still wet. OH GOD…" He shouts. You run towards him. "Could you be a tad bit more quiet? What's wrong?!" You say, as he gags. "That's… that is NOT paint. Hoo wee… well would ya look at that… that…th-that is umm… bl- that… is… BLOOD OH MY GOD… I'm not good with blood… well, he he, I'm just gonna lean on the wall here, hehe, that is… wow… hoo… damn that is uhh… wow…"

He leans against the wall, and slowly starts sliding down until he hits the floor. It looks like he's frozen in place, you kneel down next to him, "What? Man has his phobias, one of 'em is bl-blood" He looks at you as if he's ashamed of saying so. But his tone tells you that its more than a phobia that he has. "Stay here, I didn't know you were the type of guy who was afraid of a little blood painted on a door." You joke. "Huh? I wasn't talking about the door; I was talking about inside…"

You look inside, "Oh God…"

Thank you guys for reading this chapter! I'm so sorry for not updating any sooner, these months have been filled with studying for exams, but now they're done! So I started writing this chapter as soon as I had the time. I hope you enjoy, and any reviews will be much appreciated! 


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